I question the timetable although not the ultimate outcome:
Lt. Gen. Rasheed Fleih, who leads the Anbar Military Command, told the state television Sunday that "two to three days" are needed to push the militants out of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi. Fleih added that pro-government Sunni tribes are leading the operations while the army only is offering aerial cover and logistics on the ground. He didn't elaborate on the operations.
But I'm guessing. I have no idea what ISIL's strength in the two cities is. But jihadis willing to die in place are more difficult to dislodge than you'd hope.
Let's hope the tribes fighting with Iraq and Iraqi forces can kill a lot of jihadis without killing a lot of civilians caught in the crossfire.
Normally, that's where our air power would come in. But we're not there.
We'll see how it works with fire support capabilities closer to Syria's capabilities than to our capabilities.
UPDATE: Oh, and let's do a little work to discredit Iran and remind people of what we had achieved by the end of 2011.
While President Obama didn't want to stay in Iraq, Iraq's government made it easy for us to walk away from talks to do so by making conditions we could not accept. Iraq mistakenly believed they didn't need our help to finish off al Qaeda.
Iraq's government realizes this was a mistake. Let's make sure Iraq's public understands this. And make sure to remind their public that even as Iran has exerted more influence on Iraq, Iran has done nothing to prevent al Qaeda from becoming a killing machine in Iraq again.
